Didi to party: Step up anti-NRC drive

Mamata speaks to journalists after the meeting on Thursday Telegraph picture

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday instructed the Trinamul leadership to run an “extensive and sustained campaign” against the BJP over the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

Mamata also advised the leaders to woo tribals and cautioned against slacking on the Didi Ke Bolo programme.

The Trinamul chief instructed MLAs and MPs at an extended working committee meeting at the party headquarters in Calcutta to stay focused on the NRC as it would be a pivotal plank in elections in Bengal in the immediate future, according to multiple sources who attended the session.

The sources said Mamata had told the leaders that not enough was being done to counter the BJP’s pro-NRC propaganda.

“She said it would be the one burning issue for all Bengal elections in the foreseeable future, right up to the Assembly polls in 2021. She said her and her party’s vehement anti-NRC stand was clear, but we have not been making enough noise on the dangers of the exercise,” said a source.

“She said we must drive home the fallout of an NRC exercise in Bengal, its implications and its consequences…. She told us to build a massive campaign, treating it as top priority,” he added.

Asked later if the NRC campaign was the key feature of Thursday’s meeting, Mamata said: “Yes, we did talk about that.”

“Yes…. We will run an extensive and sustained campaign against the NRC. Because we are in favour of all religions, all people. We don’t support divisiveness on the basis of religion or community or caste or ethnicity or language,” the chief minister said.